Bruce Springsteen Says He's Battled Depression For Over 20 Years

Bruce Springsteen has revealed a long battle with depression in a recent interview with The New Yorker. Springsteen says he has been seeing a psychiatrist since 1982 to battle the self-loathing and suicidal thoughts he felt when he was just becoming a huge star.

Springsteen says his late father also had a form of isolating depression. "My dad was very nonverbal — you couldn’t really have a conversation with him.

"My parents’ struggles, it’s the subject of my life. It’s the thing that eats at me and always will. My life took a very different course, but my life is an anomaly. Those wounds stay with you, and you turn them into a language and a purpose."

Perhaps a gold lining is that his fear of mental illness kept him away from the drugs that killed so many fellow musicians. Band mate Steven Van Zandt said of Springsteen: "the only guy I know — I think the only guy I know at all — who never did drugs."